Kenyan Culture
Kenya Cultural aspects
Kenya is a country that is situated in the African continent that was previously referred as the Dark Continent by the Europeans before they conquered Africa due to their strong traditional backward culturalinclinations. Many in this country, irrespective of the western civilization that was spread in the 20th century by their European colonial masters aimed at spreading new modes of dressing, religion, education, and administration, many have remained faithful to their ancestral and traditional values and cultures. This country has been of strategic and economic importance to the U.S in East Africa and African at large for business and other explorations e.g. fighting terrorism (Bale, 2013). Many of its citizens are yet to become literate because educational programs are not fully rolled out to all communities with some areas like North Eastern part of the nation yet embrace education and abandon primitive ways.
Negotiation process
Education is one cultural aspect that will profoundly impact the negotiation process between America and Kenya. While almost all American citizens are educated, the same cannot be said of their Kenyan counterparts whose entire populations are yet to become fully trained. While America is a postindustrial society whose citizen’s knowledge is based on scientific and rational thinking, Kenya is a country that cannot be regarded even modern, because their dominant sector of production is Agriculture and a significant number of its citizen’s knowledge is derived from religious faith, magic, and superstition. In the negotiation table, while Americans think critically and rationally, Kenyans thinking is influenced by their cultural values and beliefs.
Their interests in the business negotiation process are parallel because Americans aims to increase capital, while Kenyans engage in business, being a third world economy for survival. (Thiong’o, 2011). While American workers are very skilled, Kenyans workers are unskilled or semiskilled due to educational factors and any business conducted cannot be fair because it is obvious that those who are more skilled and knowledgeable should get more out of any business dealings. Kenya has a problem with their manufacturing process because they would require their agricultural produce and raw materials to be manufactured into finished goods and yet they don’t possess the means to do so, America has. When America turns them into finished products, a value is added to the prices, and this translates into a skewed type of business because America will eventually cost more for their goods than Kenya. The export-import business will also be unbalanced.
Significant economic and cultural differences between Kenya and the United States
American’s thinking, and occurrence’s interpretations are based on scientific and rational knowledge, while that of Kenyans is based on magic and superstition for all happenings. The culture of consumerism in Kenya as a third world is consuming what is disposed off by the U.S thereby, causing environmental issues. The native’s main languages in Kenya is speaking in their local mother tongue languages, and their elites speak in the imitated and copied American English, while that spoken by all Americans is pure American English, which is their national and official language. Many of Kenyan communities are ethnocentric in thinking their traditional believes are superior to other cultures, hence are not ready to accept social changes on their values and beliefs, while the Americans are rational thinkers who will adapt to changes that bear positive life advancement results in their lives. Kenyan citizens consume maize as their staple food, while in America, consumption of food is varying according to innovations and inventions of different types of food. Many Kenyan communities give higher value in extended family settings, while in America importance is put on nuclear family settings (Johnson, 2002).
Perception of Americans style of doing business by Kenyans
Kenyan natives perceive the American nature of doing business as an unfair one, because they claim Americans are always fixated on exploiting them to gain more from their business dealings with the Kenyans. All do not share this view, but a significant percentage of them shares it. They argue that America continues to get richer, while Kenya continues to get poor. This is primarily as a result of their economic plans that encourage more imports than exports. The currency strength also plays a part in the international market, with their shilling decidedly weaker against the dollar. They blame the notion of associating manufactured goods with high prices and agricultural products with low prices to the idea of Americanism, where high value is placed on American products and low value on the developing countries products. Americans are blamed for brainwashing Kenyan elites, who after learning in America, return to their country to advance American interests instead of solving Kenyan native’s issues.
Effects of cultural/economic characteristics
Societies are analyzed through time, and it is important to note that America is more than 200 years old, and has evolved with time transiting into different stages with different social, economic, cultural, political and technological structures. The problems of Kenya can be derived from misguided policies of trying to force a 50-year-old country to become urbanized, industrial and developed like America within a short period. This unrealistic, and that is why they are experiencing many problems. The business approach between America and Kenya should be conducted in a manner which negotiators deem beneficial to both countries.it can go to extreme measures by the U.S to offer Kenya business advices and skilled labor aimed atstirring their ailing economy. Decision making should start to be made rationally and scientifically in Kenya because the world continues to modernize, and embracing technology will suit all Kenyans interests in every sector of their economy. The communication style will only be improved and made efficient if all Kenyans are educated and literate (Walumbwa, 2015).
References
Bale, J., & Sang, J. (2013). Kenyan running: movement culture, geography, and global change. Routledge.
Johnson, S., & Miller, A. (2002). A cross-cultural study of immediacy, credibility, and learning in the US and Kenya. Communication Education, 51(3), 280-292.
Wa Thiong’o, N. (2011). Kenyan culture: The national struggle for survival. Writers in Politics. Essays.
Walumbwa, F. O., Orwa, B., Wang, P., & Lawler, J. J. (2015). Transformational leadership, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction: A comparative study of Kenyan and US financial firms. Human resource development quarterly, 16(2), 235-256.